Long Beach’s proper Irish pub, The Auld Dubliner in DTLB, has been named the best Irish pub in the state of California by MSN—and one of the best in the nation.
Joining a list that ranks the best in every state in the nation, Auld Dub owner David Copley had nothing but the most fitting, succinct answer. “I am so damn happy about this,” he said.
And given the pub’s rich history—a melding of an Irishman’s love letter to the city and the history of one of the world’s richest cultures—the two-decades-old staple deserves all the laurels it can garner.
What MSN said about The Auld Dubliner…
Short, sweet, and to the point, here is what MSN said about The Auld Dubliner’s undeniable charm:
A result of a partnership between natives of Long Beach and County Limerick. There’s a lot going on at The Auld Dubliner. That starts with live music almost every night. And one of the largest whiskey selections in California. It continues with rave reviews for the fish and chips and the boxty. Opt for a whiskey flight, and you’re not going to go wrong with the full Irish breakfast. Expect a lively crowd and a super-fun time all around.
Why The Auld Dubliner in Long Beach matters…
The Auld Dubliner’s importance extends well beyond Long Beach. For Southern California’s Irish diaspora, the Downtown pub remains one of the region’s most complete, sincerely rendered connections to the motherland—a cultural space built around the understanding that an Irish pub is not merely somewhere to drink.
It is a gathering room. A civic chamber. A music venue. It is a place to debate and celebrate. And, historically, somewhere people found warmth and community when both were difficult to come by.
That understanding comes directly from owner David Copley, a Limerick native whose journey through the United States eventually brought him to Long Beach.
During his years as a self-described nomad, David continually found himself disappointed by American approximations of Irish pub culture—right down to the inability to properly pour a Guinness. After working at Limericks in Naples, his complaints prompted a simple challenge from friends: If he believed he could do it better, he should.
Every piece of The Auld Dubliner was made in Ireland and assembled Stateside.
David took that challenge with remarkable seriousness. The Auld Dubliner was not decorated to resemble an Irish pub after the fact: It was designed in Ireland by John Heverin of Òl Irish Pubs, with its pieces fabricated there, shipped across the Atlantic and assembled in Long Beach. Its artifacts and antiques were gathered from Irish swap meets, yard sales and antique shops.
Even its name was borrowed with permission from Dublin’s original Auld Dubliner. The result is something exceedingly rare in Southern California: a pub that feels less like an American interpretation of Ireland and more like a room from Ireland transported intact to the edge of the Pacific.
Its location was equally intentional. When David was planning the pub in 2003, Downtown Long Beach was the one place where live music—an essential piece of Irish pub life—could be incorporated without an enormous regulatory battle.
The Dub opened in 2004 amid The Pike’s sea of corporate restaurants and entertainment venues, yet somehow became one of the development’s few genuinely local institutions: a hyper-traditional Irish pub that is also, unmistakably, a Long Beach bar.
The Auld Dubliner: Simultaneously fully Irish and 100% Long Beach.
That is ultimately why The Auld Dubliner matters to the larger Irish community of SoCal.
It preserves Irishness as a living culture—not a shamrock-covered caricature frozen around St. Patrick’s Day. Through live music, Irish whiskey education, annual journeys to Ireland and a menu that evolves alongside Ireland’s own culinary renaissance, David continually reconnects the pub to the country that inspired it.
The Dub is his immigrant story rendered in wood, music, food and perfectly poured pints: a letter of love from Ireland to Long Beach, and one of SoCal’s most meaningful gathering places for the Irish diaspora.
The Auld Dubliner is located at 71 S. Pine Ave.
